It's a theory but the weakest entries in the series were Columbus's slavishly faithful, lightweight entries that made very little attempt to forshadow the darkness to come. Whereas Azkaban and Phoenix really worked towards being good films in their own right.

And although Yates seemed to have done the best job yet with Phoenix )though the storytelling at the end becomes a bit confused) I'm sad to find out that no other directors will get a shot at the franchise, and I would have loved to see Cuarón return.

It feels like they've cashed their chips in with these two decisions, by not taking any risks in reducing the script's length or hiring new someone with a different vision.

I have a pretty big problem with the the fact that David Yates is directing the next 3 movies as i thought that "phoenix" was far and away they least imaginative potter and lacked any real style at all. Best director at the empire film awards over Paul Greengrass....what the fuck happened there!!! I had my doubts about Mike newell pulling off number 4 but he did a really fantastic job but alas my doubts towards Yates were all confirmed when i saw the last one .....shame he gets to inject the next 3 with his lack of panache boo hoo now i don't want to see them....what happened to getting someone really special in too pull the last one off?

I felt Goblet of Fire was a step in the wrong direction. It continued a fair bit of the darkness especially with Voldemort's entrance, but it was going back to the 'full of stuff but nothing actually happens' approach of the Columbus era. Whereas I thought Phoenix had a great energy and pace to it and a much more mature score, though the condensing of the book does muddle the storytelling a bit in the last act.

I have no problem with Yates doing Half-Blood Prince but I would have preferred Cuarón - who I thought made a brave decision to go down the slow burning character drama route - or another more seasoned filmmaker to handle the big finish. Now Yates will have directed the entire second half of the franchise, and I fear repetition will set in.

dobbys funeral would in my opinion be the best time to seperate the two films, you will get the small battle at the malfoy mantion, and then the funeral, tho please reaally give effort into this scene especially with harry digging the little hero's grave, you cant get more emotionally charged, please dont mess this up

I have been a Harry Potter fan ever since the first film and was prompted to buy the books. Soon as I have read the last book the split in the film Is what I have been wishing for. I know that it won't do justice to the book if you try to compress it into one film. So many important facts would most likely be lost and everything in the last book is important, especially for those who have not read the book. Congratulations on this decision, I think the people will rather have it than a consolidated one film.

I like a lot of people have been a big Potter fan, enjoying both the books and the movies, however. I don't see how they can make two movies from the last book. I got half way through Hollows and lost the will to live, it was that boring I had to stop and still don't know how it ends. By the end of Half Blood Prince I though, this is it, now the action really starts, instead it was all about aimless wanderings and falling out with each other. Of all the books, surely the last one is the easier to cut into one film?

... Pretty much sums up how I'm feeling about the split. I think it's a fantastic idea and now means they can stick almost 100% to the book. And if J.K likes it, who are we to argue? I also don't mind waiting two years, as it means with the elongated time, waiting for the 7th to come out wont feel so rushed. And because it's going to be the last ever HP movie, when watching Part 1 we can then look forward to part 2... Just gives us an extra film to look forward to really... Yay! Well done David and co :D I cannie wait! x

You should really retitle your message to show it contains SPOLIERS - not everybody has read the book and might go into the film not knowing who dies!!Clearly marking Messages that contain spoliers is part of the forum rules - don't take this badly, I just know I'd be very pissed off if I'd seen that title and hadn't read the book!

I think when Ron returned to the forest and when they were able to destroy the first horcrux that they've got, will be a good point to end the first part of the film. I disagree with one reader here that said the last book is boring. I think this is the most interesting of all seven books and I would be really, really disappointed if it will not be broken into two parts to accomodate scenes that are very important. If it will be too much compressed like I think is what happened to OOTP, it would not do justice to the story.